KARACHI: Pakistan’s $2.3 billion pharmaceutical industry needs to learn from India’s experience if it wants to give a much needed boost to its exports from the current $184 million level, said Kiran Rathod, international sales manager of India’s ACG Pampac Machines, on Tuesday.

Addressing a session during the 10th Health Asia 2014 International Exhibition and Conferences, Rathod, in his speech titled ‘Growth of Indian pharmaceutical industry: a model that Pakistan can replicate’, said India has 526 manufacturing facilities approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), second highest number outside of the United States.

Pakistan, on the other hand, doesn’t even have a single FDA-approved plant. Even Bangladesh and Jordan have four and three such plants, respectively, despite the fact that their pharma industry is younger.

He said factors like large skill base, lower cost of infrastructure, strong local industry, speed and availability of capital give India competitive edge over its regional peers.

Earlier, Board of Investment chairman Miftah Ismail, who was the chief guest, said there was no denying that the pharma industry is facing problems but so do consumers who think medicines are overpriced.

Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA) chairman Nasir Javaid in his speech before Ismail’s recommended to place a moratorium on import of finished products from India and reduce tariffs on import of raw material (active ingredients) to zero.

Contesting the demand, the BoI chairman said it was unfortunate that the industry wants concession for itself but opposes medicine imports which favour consumers.

However, he assured the industry of price deregulation.On India’s booming drug market, he said price deregulation was just one factor which has spurred the growth. Other supportive factors include big local market, skilled labour and better gas and power supply.

Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) CEO Arshad Khan in his speech defended the regulator on slow registration process of pharma companies, saying the delay was mostly because of poor quality of application.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, chairwoman and managing director of India’s biotechnology company Biocon, in a video message said the global healthcare challenge is mounting year by year and around 2bn people have no access to healthcare.

Indus Pharma’s managing director, Zahid Saeed, informed the audience that Pakistan’s drug market has 667 registered manufacturing units, including 22 multinationals.

Citing a report prepared by the global management consulting firm ‘McKinsey & Company’, he said Pakistan was among the world’s 35 countries which are meeting 90 per cent demand of their local drug market.

He urged the DRAP to apply for PIC/S (Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme) certification which, he said, would open the doors for exports to around 50 PIC/S member countries, including those of Eastern Europe, as well as eliminate factory inspections by most countries which have stringent company and product registration process.

He said India’s pharma industry was export-oriented, generating 70pc of its revenue in dollars while “we are content with less than 10pc exports.”

Pharma Bureau chairman Shahab Rizvi, Medisure MD Kaiser Waheed, PharmEvo MD Haroon Qasim, GlaxoSmithKline MD Salman Burney, KATI chairman Farrukh Mazhar and others also spoke.

Around 325 international and domestic exhibitors are showcasing their products and services during three-day event being organised by Ecommerce Gateway Pakistan in Expo Centre.

More than 200 foreign delegates from 21 countries are attending the event.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2014